Comer Threatens Leon Black With Contempt Over $158 Million Epstein Ties

Q: What happens when a special election to fill a sudden vacancy runs concurrently with a regular election for the exact same seat?

When a special election and the regular election are held for the same seat, they are treated as two separate contests with two separate terms of office. The special election decides who serves the unexpired remainder of the current term, while the regular election decides who will serve the next full term beginning in January. That is what is happening in California’s 14th Congressional District after Eric Swalwell’s resignation. Tuesday’s special election fills the seat only through the end of the current Congress, essentially until January. The November election will decide who holds the seat for the full two-year term that follows. The same candidates can appear in both races, and voters may be asked to vote for the same office twice in the same cycle because the legal question is different each time: one ballot fills a vacancy, the other fills the upcoming standard term. It is also possible for different people to win. If that happens, the special-election winner serves only briefly, and the regular-election winner takes over when the new term starts. Sometimes the overlap is even tighter if both contests are on the same day, as has happened in Senate races in California and elsewhere. In that case, election officials still count and certify them separately because each race carries a different term. In short, the seat is the same, but the time periods are not. The special election answers who serves now; the regular election answers who serves next.

3 articles · Updated · NBC News · Aug 19

A Sept. 3 deposition and subpoenaed NDAs are at the center of James Comer’s threat to hold Leon Black in contempt in the House Oversight Committee’s Jeffrey Epstein probe.
Comer said Black produced only one nondisclosure agreement, was refusing to answer specific questions about agreements with women, and was trying to delay the follow-up deposition until late September or October.
Black, Apollo’s former CEO, paid Epstein $158 million for tax, estate-planning and related advice from 2012 to 2017, according to a company review; law enforcement has not accused him of wrongdoing.
Susan Estrich, Black’s attorney, said the committee has the only pre-Epstein-death confidentiality agreement and called the demand a privacy invasion and political witch hunt.
The clash sharpens congressional scrutiny of people tied to Epstein, with Comer warning the committee will use all available tools if Black misses the scheduled deposition or withholds documents.